R E S E T
by Lushard
Summary: A compilation of Re-Chapters shot from different perspectives. In tune with [Memories of Brighter Days]. GEB / GE2 spoiler alert.
1. Chapter 01: Reawaken

**_A/N - 31st December 2013:_** _This is a sister fic to 'Memories of Brighter Days' and by no means a sequel. Rather, it is a prelude to one. _

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A Gods Eater / Gods Eater 2 fanfiction by Lushard.

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**Chapter 01**

**[Reawaken]**

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09 – 09 – 2075 / 20:44:16

After Ray had told her to eat first and left, Alisa found herself staring at her plate instead of filling it with food. Her mind and body were tired, but still she had no appetite. She had spent the hours before dusk sleeping in a borrowed room upstairs. Even so, she still felt weary and restless.

Whenever she had time to think, her mind would automatically reel back to the events in the past, to mull over and over things she knew she couldn't change. She had gambled, and lost. She had bid her farewell to him, and yet, she would be lying if she believed that she could simply turn away from her grief and live on.

He was _alive_. No matter what he claimed otherwise. That simple fact alone had rekindled a small spark of hope within her that refused to be extinguished.

Funny, she bitterly thought, how the heart could be so naive and still prevailed over logic. The way he stared at her should have told her to accept reality as it was. He hated her, that much was clear. His discomfort around her was noticeable from the way he acted, which would only supply her with more reason to give up on hope.

Yet she found it painful to do so.

Suddenly desperate to escape the nagging feeling of dread, she stood up, leaving her empty plate behind. She approached a window and opened it, hoping that cool night air would wash away the bitter feelings inside of her.

Alisa breathed deeply, closed her eyes, tried to still her running thoughts. When she opened her eyes again, darkness loomed before her, so black that a house next to Scar's abode was only a silhouette. Electricity was at a minimum level. It reminded her that this place, no matter how close it looked to a Fenrir-labeled shelter, had not as much as energy supply.

Apart from Nemos Diana, she had never stayed overnight at a sector which was not under Fenrir's influence. Then again, whether Nemos Diana could be a fair comparison to this sector—the so-called the Nest—was an understatement. This place obviously had less resources than the former. Less guards against the Aragami, less weaponry, less energy source, less _everything_.

Scar had told her that it was spacious enough to house hundreds of refugees, but the man had never explained how exactly the governors of this sector intended to _preserve _the lives within the metal walls they'd built. Considering how young it looked, she doubted that they even had a Gods Eater.

Fenrir was rarely on a friendly term with a rebelling force. If the governors of this sector were indeed labelling themselves as an 'enemy' of Fenrir, then they had little chance to survive when calamity struck. All it took would only be a few Aragami and this place would be ruined. Funny, how some people could be so defiant when it was clear that they were at a disadvantage.

Opposing Fenrir meant a slow regression towards death unless they could manage to develop some sort of countermeasure against the Aragami and global warming. And such, some geniuses came up with an unorthodox idea of copying and upgrading the Bias Factor.

_"Do you realize the position you are in now?"_ A voice she had heard in her 'prison' before she had been released to go back into the Far East Branch echoed in her head.

Alisa let a half smile came to her lips. Of course. All those theories and speculations were nothing but mere deductions. She'd _read_ and _heard_ and _seen_. She had never _felt _how it was to live outside of an Anti-Aragami Armored Wall. And before the raid by the Black Cloaks days ago, she had never suspected for that possibility to happen. _Fenrir breeds the Gods Eaters. Fenrir controls everything. Fenrir welcomes and protects everyone._ That was the kind of dogma that every child under Fenrir's wings was raised to uphold.

The thought of how little her knowledge about lives outside of the Walls made her feel small; insignificant; worse, ignorant.

She remembered how Ray had stared at her with his gun's barrel leveled at her head. His eyes had voiced his pity and resentment, accusation and disgust. Was that how a person who had lived outside of the Walls view the sheltered ones? Was that how some people view Gods Eaters—only as a force of genetically enhanced people whose comfort was ensured by Fenrir? No wonder Scar had told her to stay under the radar. She too would despise her kind were their positions to be reversed.

A muffled sound, much like a soft thud of an object falling to the wooden floor, startled her. She stood still for some seconds, listening. There was only silence in the house safe for a soft purring of a generator. But then the sound repeated itself, a little bit rougher and louder this time. It came from...the second floor?

Before her mind could process anything, her feet were already moving toward the staircase. The house was dark, lit only by small lamps hanging on the ceiling. Were it not for her vision as a Gods Eater, she would certainly have stumbled on the stairs. As Alisa approached the room he was in, it became clear where the sounds had come from. His door was closed. Alisa's pace slowed, hesitating.

Softly, she knocked on the door. "Ray?"

There was no reply coming from the other side. But she picked up a faint sound of a grunt. Should she check inside...? For some seconds she stood there in silence before finally reaching for the handle. It was not locked. "I heard loud noises from your room," she said as she swung the door inside very slowly. "Is—"

What happened next was a blur. She felt, rather than saw, Ray lunging at her—his cold hand seizing her neck, then her back hitting the hard wall. Frantically she grasped for the hand that was choking the breath out of her. Then she saw him. His eyes: blood red, crazed. Mouth slightly opened in labored breathing, his face rigid. The hunger in those orbs was too primal for someone who was not equipped with razor-sharp claws and fangs.

Every Gods Eater could instantly translate what that look meant: It was the look of a predator ready to feast on its prey. The look of an Aragami that was about to feast upon a fresh kill.

Alisa tried to say something—anything—to him but her air supply was cut short when he tightened his grip on her neck. Her mind began to black out, her struggles weakening.

A rush of feelings, memories and haphazard images assaulted her mind. They all screamed in unison for blood, for the torture to subside, for everything to end. They surged and merged until they became a wave of emotion that she could not quite place at first but then did. Desperation. So simple and pure it almost make her scream along with the voices of his past.

_"...To live." _A boy, sharply featured, short in stature. Blood-stained and battle-worn. Empty eyes stared back in silence.

The boy was swept away in the briefest of moment, another memory already jutting out and zooming in. This time, a familiar figure stood out in the same white room. Black skinned, enormous built, solid. _"Dunno about you, but I wanna live and see tomorrow..." _

_"Test subject one—"_

Needles, so many needles, pierced her—_his —_skin. Shooting pain became a numb sensation at the back of her head. A new voice rang to accompany a series of mental images that featured a blueprint of an underground facility and descending scalpels.

A man's voice echoed. It beckoned him into a room filled with monitors and tubes. _"You want to know the truth?" _

_'Tell me,' Ray's voice, low and raw with anger, bellowed. _

_"No more secrets, then. You were—"_

_Stop...!_

_"You're Number One, right? Let's stick along for the time being, eh, former Gods Eater."_

_"Three is better than two, you mean."_

_"Max?"_

_Stop!_

Abruptly, Ray released her, ending their Resonance. She fell crumpled to the floor, coughing and gasping hard for air. As blood began to flow again in her veins, her senses were slowly returning, and she heard him spitting out a word "Out!" ruggedly. She lifted up her head. Ray was several paces away, his hands and knees on the floor. "Get out!" he rasped again.

Alisa took a step forward and wrapped her arms around him. Ray tried to jerk away from her upon contact but she held him firmly. He turned violent in her embrace, seemingly desperate to have her as far as possible. "'The hell are you—" His voice died when she kept him from breaking free.

Then pain seared her sides. He was yanking at her in an attempt to break free, as though he'd rather have her flesh torn than staying still.

Tears started to sluice down her cheeks. This was the same Ray whose back she had followed with all her might in her junior year. This was the same man who had led his team home from one fight after another.

Was he not?

Not for the first time, she felt the harsh bite of reality shredding her heart at the spark of denial that had almost enveloped her being. It overwhelmed her, this little voice of defiance that refused to see him as the same person he had been a year ago. And for a moment, it was so tempting to just give in to the delusion. To see him as no more than a mere ghost of the dead Ray.

It was a simple fact, his death was, that even the victim himself had declared to accept. But the rekindled hope, that he was not all lost to the experiment that had made him into the person in her arms now, was stronger than the intimidating feeling to succumb into the pit of despair.

To be truthful, she wanted to let go of that hope; wanted to scream at it, to be free from its burden. But couldn't.

"Let go!" he said against her shoulder, again attempting to disengage himself without success.

Alisa opted to say nothing, knowing that words would not help much in this situation. All she could do was to hold on to reality, to the _real_, physical pain that helped her to silence the discouraging voices in her head.

Eventually, he grew limp. His breathing was slowing and his struggles were subsiding. The hands that had been trying to rid her a second before fell to his sides. She could feel his muscles slack, but Alisa waited until he was still before she loosened her grip around him.

"Rest," she quietly said. Her hand moved to lightly bury itself in his hair, easing him.

There was a second when Alisa thought he would fight her back, but that moment passed and his head lolled to one side. He had fallen asleep. So fast that she would have started panicking if it weren't for a faint beating of his heart resonating against her body.

All of her remaining strength was being drained away by the oracle cells at work. They were nullifying the pain, already on the move to stitch her wounds. Fast healing was a gift every Gods Eater possessed. Now, it was a gift she suddenly despised.

Tiredness blurred her vision. The semi-darkness lulled her to close her eyes. She swatted it with several blinks. Carefully, she eased Ray onto the bed frame.

His breaths were deep and even, contrasting the fact that it had come out in gasps and hisses barely a minute ago.

It felt surreal to look at him when no hatred wasn't emanating from his features. He looked peaceful. Serene, even. But as her eyes drifted to his right wrist, she was again reminded that people in the past stayed in the past. They could never cross the borders of time.

He was dead, in a sense, to her and to the people he once may have cared about. Just like her parents. Just like everyone else she had failed to protect.

Alisa reached out to touch Ray's wrist. Warm blood was wetting the bandage still. Behind the soft cloth was torn flesh she knew would scar him for the rest of his life, a cruel token passed down from his former self which time wouldn't heal.


	2. Chapter 02: Readjust

A Gods Eater / Gods Eater 2 fanfiction by Lushard.

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**Chapter 02**

**[Readjust]**

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09 – 09 – 2075 / 21:07:23

"Erina, fall back! You're too far ahead!"

Following the order, the girl in gray vest turned to give an annoyed look before swinging her spear at in incoming Ogre Tail. She was several paces away from the site they were supposed to guard, and judging from the eagerness in her movements, she wouldn't return to her assigned position anytime soon.

"I will!" she shouted back. "If they ever stop coming!" Two more Ogre Tails appeared from behind a fallen platform, followed by a horde of Zygotes.

Kota bit back a curse. He jumped back and shot at the closest ones, managing to keep his distance from the flooding monsters all the while scoring bullets to their heads. Farther on his left, Emil—another newbie placed under his supervision—was battling a group of Fallen Ogre Tails frantically. _Damnnit_.

His transmission device buzzed and Hibari's voice informed him of a big Aragami coming his way. _Sure, the more the merrier_, he thought bitterly. With another shot landing on a Zygote's skull, he spun around and ran to the frontline, all the while dividing the Gods Eaters at the area into two groups: one to defend the broken Wall, and the other to intercept the Aragami heading their way.

Ever since the Wall had been breached, every unit stationed at the branch had been ordered to standby. They were to defend the branch and the surrounding area until the Wall was repaired, meaning that they simply had to _stand their ground _against unrelenting force of Aragami that were attracted to the scent of humans living behind the broken barricade. Patrol duty equaled a restless combat, and a restless combat meant a sore body and mind. Kota and his team had only been dispatched thirty minutes ago, but he felt as if he was replaying all the battles he had gone through in his three years of experience being a Gods Eater in that short amount of time.

Thankfully, the night sky was clear, with the full moon hanging over the blackness to light their path. Dismembered structures of what must have been tall and broad buildings from days long past did nothing to set the party at ease. With the shadows the moonlight played on them, visibility was bad. Here and there they picked up a low growl that they failed to locate, rustling sounds of something bigger than them moving about in the background of the ruins. Finally, Hibari's voice alerted them, and in the next second a shadow emerged from remnants of a building, lunging toward the Gods Eaters with a thunderous roar. A Garm.

The wolf-like Aragami's claws were aimed at Kota, an attack that would surely rip his flesh were he a second too late to roll over to his left. In that exact moment he snatched a stun grenade from a pocket under his jacket and tossed it into the air. The grenade hit the Garm's sturdy armor, flashed brightly, and earned a shocked cry from the beast.

"Begin barrage!" Kota shouted.

All who were equipped long ranged weaponry opened fire. Their bullets were blazing like fireworks in the night, the sounds of artilleries working all at once deafening Kota's enhanced hearing sense. The Garm tried to evade the bullets with high jumps and dashes, but soon it found its front legs wounded and was unable to move as fast as it wanted to. Within seconds, the barrage died and several close combatants lunged at the weakened Aragami to devour it. It gave out a long howl before it finally grew limp on the ground.

Once the red Aragami was nothing but a pulp of cut flesh and blood, Hibari's voice spoke through the intercom: "The area's clear. Everyone, please return to your posts."

"What's the situation back there?" Kota asked.

"So far the smaller ones had been taken care of," she replied. "Our radar isn't picking up any incoming threats, but—"

"—It's best to stay on our guard," he finished for her with a repressed sigh. "Roger that." He could imagine the older woman giving him an apologetic look, so he quickly added, "At least we can breathe for a while 'till they appear again. By the way, have you heard anything from Alisa?"

There was a pause, and for a moment, his chest was gripped with dread that the worst had happened. But then she said, "No. Not yet. We are still trying to locate her through her armlet, but it seems like her emitter has been jammed."

Which meant no better than some scenario he feared. Again he cursed his lack of power and luck for not being able to follow her fast enough into the core of Aegis. The female God Arc Wielder who had been facing him and the Gods Eaters had been tough and a tricky opponent—she'd managed to buy those Black Cloaks time to evacuate from the island before any of them could get into the chambers of Nova. They had even managed to steal the mother chip containing all the data from years of research conducted there. And just like that, a tiny piece of metal holding Fenrir-restricted information went missing along with one of the Far East's most valuable Gods Eaters.

He remembered Sakaki's tale about how they had agreed to give those ex-Researchers the body of Ray Maxwell and felt that 'missing' was not the appropriate word.

Kidnapped. Abducted. Or maybe even killed and dissected under a microscope.

Kota gritted his teeth to prevent a long list of curse words from escaping his mouth. The battle had consumed much of his patience bar, and the rage plus uneasiness settling in his heart would have made him _happy _to go berserk and hunt for more Aragami out there who was miserable enough to stray into his view were it not for his status as a Captain. So long as there were people looking at him asking what to be done, he needed to have his impulses in check. It didn't mean it wasn't preventing him from becoming a ball of nerves, though.

It was some seconds later that he found his voice of a normal composure again to speak. "Spare with no more than a broken line of defense and hording Aragami, we're left with nothing at all then?"

"Not exactly," she slowly said.

Hibari seemed reluctant to continue, so Kota pressed harder. "What? What have we got?"

After a moment of silence, she relented. "Dr. Sakaki is working to pick up the leftovers of some research that has been left abandoned. He's trying to locate the places that just might be connected to them."

Oh. That explained Lindow and Soma's absence. They must be acting as the doctor's private rangers, snuffing around without alerting the gruffy higher ups in the HQ, who, to his irritation, were concerned with nothing that they deemed unprofitable. "Have we heard a word?"

"Nothing significant, so far. He found out about things, yes, but they don't tell us anything useful in our current situation."

"Not a thing?" He was beginning to sound desperate. "Where do their choppers land, where they've been in hiding all this time, where they're conducting their experimentations—?"

"No," she replied in a lower voice. "I will relay any information I get from the Doctor if he finds anything."

"All right." _Shit._ "Thanks."

They'd gone back to their post near a reconstruction site—the Wall was broken in several areas, much to everyone's dismay—and he called an engineer who was working on the repair. "How much further till' it's patched up?" he asked the middle-aged man.

"At this rate, maybe two weeks or three," he replied with a shake of his head. Kota was about to roll his eyes and faint right there when the engineer spoke again. "But the Aragami assault is both a curse and a blessing to us. With the cores that are coming right into our storage, maybe we can speed it up."

"Nice to hear our work covers up the debt," Erina chimed in as she passed by them.

Kota ignored her and let the engineer to get back to his work. He told the fresh wave of combatants to stay on guard duty before sauntering into one of a hastily-patched tent and claimed a seat, dropping his God Arc tiredly. Gods, his muscles ached. Some of his colleagues had retired to take a cat's nap in the tent, their God Arcs resting beside their heads while they littered the ground. Must be good to be able to sleep, he thought. He knew better than to try.

Since Alisa's M.I.A status had been made online, any sleep he could get was only a two-or-three troubled rest with his subconscious playing tricks on him. More often than not, they featured Ray.

Kota's eyes shot back open with fury. What was _he _doing right now? Why stand on _their _side? Damn, each time he tried to think about his former ally, his mind would go nuts and his blood would get all riled up. Sakaki and the higher ups still refused to talk further concerning the matter, leaking only bits and parts that Kota couldn't fit together. He knew nothing save for Fenrir's secret bargain with its Ex-researchers, nothing but for the fact that his _best friend _had been sold away, revived by madmen, and turned against him.

He'd encountered Ray face to face to see that his eyes had looked at him with assessing gaze of a combatant and would only look at him with calculated measures. Those eyes had not even flickered in interest nor emotion when they had laid themselves upon his former allies. Or even former close friends, in that regard. They had only been focused on the battle in front of them, flicking coldly from one God Arc to another.

"Sleeping in that position will kill your back," a voice called.

Kota turned to see a man in black riding jacket and red trousers walking towards him. Haruomi Makabe. A transfer from another branch who was also the newly-elected Captain of the Fourth Squad. He waved a hand at an unoccupied quilt not far from where Kota sat crumpled on a stiff aluminum chair. "Not going to rest?" the veteran Gods Eater asked.

"Can't."

Haruomi—or Haru, as everyone called him—dragged a chair to sit beside Kota, his brown eyes surveying the other Gods Eaters in the place who were either deeply lost in their brief respite or comatosed with fatigue. "Our cute operator will notify us if there are any incoming Aragami, you know. Taking some rest until an alarm resounds doesn't hurt, especially since you have two lively newbies to look after."

As if on cue, a high-pitched voice bellowed in anger, saying things about how annoying and frustrating someone was. A cracking sound of metal being hit followed. Kota cringed.

"It's not because of that," he nearly groaned. He rolled his stiff shoulders and looked at Haru, detecting curiosity in his eyes, then looked away. "My mind's noisy." Had always been, for the last few days.

"Ah." Realization seemed to dawn on him. "I regret to say that I wasn't present to defend Aegis with you due to our patrol duty. You've known Alisa for, what, three years? I heard that you two were part of the same starting unit."

_And it's not just about that_, _or her, in particular_. "I just can't stop thinking how insane this has been."

"I can't agree more." Haru eased himself back on his chair, making the old thing look more comfortable than it actually was. "For starters, we don't truly know that their main goal is, those people in black. Or how they are able to wield the God Arcs armletless. And we also have hungry monsters preying on our home not a few kilos away..."

There were too many questions. Too many unsatisfying answers. Kota had tried to reason with every doubt he had in his heart, but every time he tried to provide himself with an answer, facts that he'd so far known came crashing his spirits down. No man was needed to be told to hate a fraction who had sold him away. Ray hated them, must have a strong reason to for him to lift up his blade against them, but Kota didn't know anything beyond that. Alisa must have seen something he hadn't, but she too had denied him answers. And now both were outside of his reach.

Hell, he didn't even know whether they were still breathing or not.

"...The Wall's still full of holes, the people restless, and our friends here are gonna be zombies by the time a siren wakes them up from their slumber," he continued. The look on Haru's face became taut. "But we know only one thing: to defend what we have with everything we've got. Doesn't your family reside in the compound?"

He answered with a small nod. The image of his mother and sister came to his mind, chasing away a tiny bit of sorrow and depression that had been plaguing him.

"Then you'll fight for their sake; you'll rest for their sake," Haru concluded.

Kota allowed himself a crooked smile at his words. He'd never heard someone put a suggestion to rest in that way. Had he the strength to dismiss his words, he would have answered back with a light tone and easy grin. His aching muscles were turning the table on him. "Fine. You win, old man."

Haru feigned a wounded look. "I'm barely thirty and you're already throwing _that _on my face? What a fresh generation we have to seize the future. I'm very optimistic to see what kind of people they will be!"

"Yeah, we'll be sure to give you more to rant about in the age to come." Kota was already dragging his tired body to a nearby quilt, feeling depleted of energy and robbed of emotions. He sank heavily into the stiff embrace of the hard material, exhaling deeply.

Right...he still had to fight, still had a reason and a family to defend, no matter how terrible he'd been at being a trusted ally to two people who had been closest to him in the last three years. If he'd failed as a friend, then all he could do now was to ensure he wouldn't as a brother and a son. And, hearing the echo of a heated banter between two certain somebodies outside of the tent, as a Captain too, he mentally added.

Sleep found him within the minute.


	3. Chapter 03: Reconnect

A Gods Eater / Gods Eater 2 fanfiction by Lushard.

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**Chapter 03**

**[Reconnect]**

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? – ? – 2074 / ?:?:?

Sloppy.

The way he was moving was way too sloppy.

The kick he had just delivered missed its mark by several inches. His punches were gradually losing their threat. And what was worse? He kept on getting hit as if he was some unmoving punching bag.

A punch was aimed to his left side. He saw it, moved his body to dodge, but received the blow nonetheless. He was too slow.

"You're sloppy," said his sparring partner while moving to seize an opening with a tackle.

Ray growled. "Thank you for voicing my thoughts aloud."

"You're welcome." Cain was taking full advantage of his unbalanced stance, and with a movement of his leg, he had Ray almost falling miserably to the cold steel floor were he not fast enough to use his hands to prevent it happening. He took a step back and allowed Ray to get up on his feet.

Ray stood up to fix his stance, all the while suppressing this urgent need to make a hole in a nearest wall. How had he become so weak? All of his attacks had missed, and he had this feeling that although his speed was good, it had somehow degraded during the fight. And not just his speed... He had a feeling that his body was always a second too late in comprehending what his brain ordered it to do.

Cain, one of the men who had proposed an alliance with him during the second round of Battle Royale, rolled his shoulders in impatience. "You have to be thankful that you have allied yourself with us before another round comes up." He paused, a grin was slowly spreading across his face. "You do realize that you were only sought by the weakest combatants who had no strategy whatsoever right?"

He had not at first, but he did now.

There were tens of people in the second round, and one fourth of them had been eliminated during the fight. He had not paid too much attention to the flow of battle that time, too busy in to sort his own thoughts and emotions to analyze the situation properly. But now that he had lost some good amount of desperation, he could see that almost everyone had grouped up in the last round, splitting the whole group into smaller ones. Group up. It was a simple strategy to survive in a continuous mock battle like this. But that hadn't been the thing that was frustrating him.

If there was an addition to the already piled-up questions in his head, it was his ability to fight.

Ray was sure that he had felt more agile and powerful after he had woken up in that blue pod. He could feel his senses sharpening, as well as his instinct. But...was it not enough? Had his survival and feats in the first two rounds been simply a victory out of desperation and determination to live? He hated to even think about it, but the possibility was high.

"We'd better come up with some tactics since the others will definitely try to best you from the very start in the next round," said Cain.

Seeing that he was the weakest of the four, Ray didn't doubt it. Luck had sided with him in the previous two battles. He couldn't count on it to defend his life for the third time. Cain was a brutal fighter, strong and fast with his attacks. Larg, the gigantic man who stood two meters tall, was someone capable of standing his ground against five combatants at once. And as for the last member of their group? She was totally on a different category.

Some paces away from the two, Larg and the young woman were locked in a spar of their own. It was an amusing sight, really, with one big man and a young lady circling each other. It was as if Ray was witnessing a fight between an unarmed female Gods Eater and a Fallen Kongou. They then traded blows. Or, it was safer to say, the young woman launched herself continuously at Larg.

Her speed was incredible and so was her reflex. She dodged every heavy attack aimed at her with ease, her feet moving nimbly to confuse the giant, her eyes fixed on her adversary's vital area. The neck, Ray thought. If he were to face such a big opponent, he would aim for the neck. The limbs would come first though, in order for her to gain access to such a high place.

Cain snapped his fingers in front of Ray, breaking his attention. He blinked and turned toward Cain, Larg and the young woman stopped their spar to look at him too.

"Wondering if we should have a strategic meeting?" Cain said.

Larg snorted, a sardonic smile was curling his lips. "Good timing."

"Hell, you know we don't have much time till the next round. And this guy," he jabbed a finger at Ray, "obviously needs to be toughened up."

It pissed Ray to hear it, but he had to admit that Cain had a point. All this mock battle thing reminded him of his first year being a newbie Gods Eater, when every comment and expectation were like a whip to his back, urging him to train harder to become a stronger fighter. What he was going through now was far more humiliating than that... In here, everything was about 'do or die,' a principal that only applied on field when he had been an active Aragami slayer. Even in sparring session, a messed-up coordination or wrong move could result in death, and no one would be held responsible.

There were almost no rules here. The scientists were silent spectators to their struggle. And apart from being kept in a pod to recharge and going through regular injections and operation, all they had to do was fight. Fight to get better in training sessions, fight to survive in the Battle Royale, fight to stay sane through all of it.

"I've seen you fighting," stated the woman as he walked towards them. Now that Ray had the chance to observe her up near, he deduced that she must be someone his age or older. Her origin was hard to discern, since he had the complexion of a half. Waist-long dark brown hair, yellow skin, and the same dark red eyes everyone here had. Her right wrist was bandaged. "You have never fought with only your hands and feet."

"Obviously," agreed Cain with a roll of his eyes.

"Then I may be able to help," she said, ignoring Cain and looking straight at Ray.

Some questions popped in his head all at once. Where did she come from? What branch? How long had she stayed in this lab, and how had she ended up here, and most importantly, how much did she know about _everything _that was going on in this goddamned place?

Ray dismissed those thoughts. If he were to ask her, then he would want the other two to be away from earshot. So far she was the only former Gods Eater he had met here, and he didn't want to risk a chance for the others to know of his circumstances. So before anyone else could interrupt, he said, "Help, then."

Larg and Cain looked at him. "You think you can improve all by yourself before the next round?" asked Larg.

"She'll help," Ray shrugged. This woman too had been once a noob in all this. If he got anyone who had the most similar background and fighting style to himself before being tossed into this ridiculous survival game, then she would be the person.

Cain was about to say something but he promptly closed his mouth. Larg was the one to say, "Fine, then. If you prove to be a hindrance in the next round, we can simply form a new alliance with a stronger somebody." And with that, the two left to train on their own.

"Loosen up," she said to him after they were alone. "I know you have questions."

Ray chose his words carefully, lowering his voice as he spoke. "How much do you know?"

"Not much. Since I don't know what time or year is it now I can't tell you how long I've been here. Longer than you, of course, but for how long I don't know." Her expression darkened as she talked. The glint in her eyes were disappearing, making the orbs look much like dark hazel in color rather than blood red. "I was wounded on a patrol mission. Fatally. The medics tended to me, I lost consciousness, and when I opened my eyes, I was already here."

Pretty much the same case. "Did you..."

She smiled. "Die? No. I guess not. I didn't know for sure, but no, I think. I woke up feeling normal, as if I've just recovered from some injuries, which is usual in our line of job."

"No strange things happening in your head?" Like, distorting headaches and blinding pain, for instance.

"Apart from the panic, no. My body felt a bit lighter, yes. My senses and reflexes seem to have sharpened too."

"And this place is...?"

"Beats me." She cast a glance at her surrounding, stopping at a glass walled room standing high from the arena they were in. "They're no Fenrir researchers, that's for sure. So this place might be a lab belonging to some other fraction."

He had realized this fact after failing to spot Fenrir's trademark emblem around him. The monitors and devices in this lab too didn't have any indicator of time or location that could signify something about the people running this place. The researchers talked mainly in English, some of them had accents and some of them not, and they seemed to be a group of various races and origins. Ray could never guess who they really were and what was their aim.

"Now, about you..." She walked to him and grabbed his right hand, so fast Ray didn't have the time to flinch or jerk away.

The contact sent electricity through his body that numbed his brain altogether. Rushing images and thoughts came flowing in. Memories that didn't belong to him assaulted him. A barren land, a tall fortress, voices and faces of people he didn't recognize, Aragami, and blood.

"As I've guessed," she said, withdrawing her hand. "You're also a New-Type."

Ray blinked several times as he tried to control his breathing. He hadn't had a chance to clearly see or process just what had entered his mind. It had happened to fast he wanted to empty his stomach right and there.

"Ray, was it?" she said, looking at him with a neutral expression as if testing out a Resonance Effect with a total stranger was a daily occurrence for her.

"They call me Max," he said, nodding to two figures fighting a distance away from them. He didn't see any point in hiding his identity from someone who had seen through his past and thoughts, but it might be safer to avoid using his name until he knew the truth behind his transfer and all these experiments running here. Ray swallowed and breathed deeply to ease himself, closing his eyes to calm his thoughts. "So... Got a name?"

She tilted her head to one side as if trying to come up with one. "Larg calls me Karen."

Ray gave her an incredulous look. "That big guy sure has a habit of naming people."

She simply shrugged. "I've got as many questions as you might have. But that can wait."

"'Till when?"

"Until you learn to survive."


End file.
